Reagan: Tax Plan For Future Quick Visit To Tampa Targeted At Elderly

TAMPA — President Reagan made his latest pitch for tax reform Thursday before an admiring audience of senior citizens, who applauded his pledge to change the tax code to help ''the next generation.''

It was a quick presidential visit designed primarily for network television news shows and newspapers across the country. Reagan spoke for 20 minutes and was in Tampa for a little more than an hour.

The president also said he has declared Levy, Franklin, Manatee and Pinellas counties major disaster areas because of Hurricane Elena. The declaration makes governments and residents in those counties eligible for federal aid to repair roads, bridges and commercial and residential property damaged during the Labor Day weekend storm.

His tax speech was delivered to about 2,400 people at Curtis Hixon Convention Center and was peppered with quips about his age. Reagan is 74.

''I'm happy to have a few kids my own age to play with,'' Reagan began. Later he said that to reform the tax code ''a certain senior citizen is going to need our help -- a fellow named Ronald

Reagan's visit was the latest in a series of quick, campaign-style stops around the country to push his plan to cut tax rates, to create new jobs, to abolish some tax deductions and credits and to help take the poor off the federal tax rolls.

The president is targeting specific groups -- the elderly, the young, blue- collar workers, high-tech workers -- to deliver his messages.

The speech was his third tax reform speech since Labor Day and was long on anecdotes and campaign rhetoric but short on details. The details were delivered before Reagan spoke by Donald Pearlman, assistant Treasury secretary.

Reagan concentrated on rousing the crowd, using a line from previous speeches. ''My friends,'' Reagan asked, ''don't you believe our taxes are too high, too complicated and utterly unfair?''

The crowd cheered back: ''Yes!''

''Thank you,'' Reagan responded. ''Looks as though I came to the right place.''

The president also included a brief pledge to protect Social Security: ''I've been accused -- Oh, boy, have I been accused! -- of wanting to tamper with Social Security more times than I've had birthdays and that's getting to be a pretty big number. Well, it just ain't so . . . I want you to know that nothing in our tax plan would affect your Social Security checks in any way -- period.''

Under his plan, Reagan said, the corporate tax rate and the capital gains tax would drop to spur new investment, and unfair loopholes would be closed. The number of personal tax brackets would be reduced from 14 to 3. ''For the majority of Americans,'' he said, ''personal taxes will be not only simpler, but lower.''

The plan, Reagan said, will stimulate the economy and create ''freedom and opportunity . . . Today we have the chance to give these precious gifts to the next generation -- to our children and grandchildren.''

The main beneficiaries, Reagan said, will be future generations. ''As we look to the future,'' he said, ''we want our children and grandchildren to know the same freedom and opportunity -- the same greatness of spirit -- that we as Americans have cherished.''

The plan, Reagan said, will stimulate the economy amd create ''freedom and opportunity . . . Today we have the chance to give these precious gifts to the next generation -- to our children and grandchildren.''

The speech was warmly received but there was no outpouring of support.

The president received a 1-minute standing ovation when he was introduced. And while he was interrupted about a dozen times by applause, the audience at times seemed to miss some of the lines.

Claudia Silas, 67, of Tampa, had her own theories for the subdued response. ''You didn't see too much overall response to anything,'' she said. ''The people he was talking to today needed hearing aids. They couldn't hear what he was saying. They just came to see him.''

They also are not very interested in tax reform, she said. ''As you look at all these people here, these silver-haired people here, we have more problems than tax reform,'' she said. The biggest problem, she said, is rising health care costs. ''He didn't say anything about health care.''

Silas, a Democrat who voted for Walter Mondale last year, said she still has doubts about Reagan's tax plan. ''I'm going to go do some studying on it,'' she said.

Fellow Democrat Janet Lynn, however, was persuaded by Reagan. Before the speech she knew nothing about the tax reform plan. Afterwards, she said, ''I thought it was a wonderful speech.'' She especially liked the part about low- income people, such as herself, not having to pay any taxes.

The speech was sponsored by Americans for Tax Reform, a group formed in July at the urging of White House officials to push the Reagan plan. The group will disband if and when the plan is passed. The organization spent about $20,000 on Thursday's rally.